India at Olympics 2021 : 3 takeaways from 10m air pistol mixed event as Saurabh Chaudhary & Manu Bhaker finish 7th, Abhishek Verma & Yashaswini Deswal end on 17th position

At Olympics 2021, 10m air pistol mixed event was India’s biggest medal hope. Unfortunately, the pair of Saurabh Chaudhary & Manu Bhaker couldn’t live up to the expectations. They did top the qualification stage 1 but finished at 7th position in the qualification stage 2.

India’s second pairing was of Abhishek Verma and Yashaswini Deswal. They were eliminated from qualification stage 1 itself. They were ranked 17th in the field of 20 teams.

This ended the Olympic campaign for the three pistol shooters - Saurabh Chaudhary, Abhishek Verma and Yashaswini Deswal. Manu Bhaker has another event to shoot in the form of a 25m pistol women's event scheduled for 29th July, Thursday. Saurabh Chaudhary will be disappointed to leave Tokyo without a medal despite performing well today.

Read: How Manu Bhaker missed out on an Olympic final due to a broken part in her pistol!

Here are the 3 key takeaways from the 10m air pistol mixed event:

#1 Saurabh Chaudhary and Manu Bhaker were leaders in qualification stage 1:

The duo combined perfectly to register the maximum number of points in the initial round - 582 -26x. Saurabh Chaudhary’s three series read as 98, 100, 98. He had an errorless 2nd series of 100/100.

Saurabh Chaudhary looked determined to return home with a medal. He even recorded an impressive streak of 18 tens on the trott. Manu Bhaker was on the mark as well as she shot 97, 94, 95.

The point to note here is that this Indian pair had 26 inner tens in qualification stage 1. It was 7 more than the second ranked pair from Russia. This statistic indicates their precision of shooting. The number of inner tens becomes vital in the medal-round final, which operates on decimal points.

The Medal Tally for Tokyo 2020 is out now. Check out the Tokyo Olympics Medal Tally.

#2 Saurabh Chaudhary and Manu Bhaker lost the plot in qualification stage 2:

Of the 20 teams competing, 8 of them made it into the 2nd round of qualification. Scores of the 1st round qualification had no bearing on the 2nd round of qualification.

An Indian medal was certain until this moment. Manu Bhaker’s qualification stage 2 score read as 92, 94. Clearly, the first series of 92 was never going to be enough in the end.

Saurabh Chaudhary shot 96 and 98 in the qualification stage 2. The pair aggregated 380 points with 11x. The fourth finalist from Serbia recorded 384 -11x. Had this Indian pair had 4 more points and an additional inner ten, it would have qualified them for the bronze-medal match.

#3 Abhishek Verma and Yashaswini Deswal continue to disappoint:

Much more was expected from these two numero uno’s in their respective categories. In the individual events, they were unable to progress into the finals. They exited the 10m air pistol mixed event on a similar note as well.

Abhishek Verma began his match with the series of 92. He paced it up with a series of 94 and 97. However, it was too little too late. Yashaswini Deswal wasn’t up to her usual best either. She recorded a downfall of 95, 95, 91.

The Indian pair put on a mere total of 564 -10x to bow out in the 17th place.